The Fantasy Football Glossary

• Auction Draft - A fantasy football draft that gives a pre-determined amount of fantasy cash to each owner to bid on NFL players in order to fill their roster. Often times, players will be given an amount, say $260--despite the fact they only paid a $50 or $100 to enter the league.
• Basic Scoring - As the name implies, a simplified fantasy football scoring method where points are only earned when your team's starters score a touchdown, field goal and/or extra points.
• Bench Players - Players on your roster which you do not start. Typically you do not score points for bench players' performance.
• Commissioner - The leader of a fantasy football league. A fantasy football commissioner oversees all aspects of the league, including organizing the draft and reporting the results of fantasy games.
• Cheat Sheet - A pre-season tool that helps with your fantasy football draft. A cheat sheet ranks NFL position players (QB, RB, WR, TE, K) in order of their predicted fantasy football points. The best cheat sheets are based on the most current player news and injury reports.
• Cut - When a team owner removes a player from their fantasy roster.
• Depth Chart - Information about who is starting and who is on the bench on actual NFL teams. Depth Charts play a crucial role both during the fantasy football draft, and throughout the season.
• Draft - Team owners and the commissioner meet pre-season for team owners to select fantasy players either by auction or draft. Many drafts take place online in virtual draft rooms, which are similar to chat rooms.
• Dynasty League - A long-term fantasy football league where team owners keep their entire roster each year. The draft is held in order to improve your team and the order is based on your previous year's finish.
• Garbage Time or Garbage TD's - When a fantasy player gets scores a touchdown late in an NFL game whose outcome has long been decided.
• Injured Reserve (IR) - Some fantasy football leagues will give managers the option of sending injured players to the Injured Reserve for a designated number of weeks. Another player can be added to the fantasy team because the IR player does not count against the player limit. If the player returns to the line up before the designated number of weeks has passed, the fantasy owner cannot earn points for that player, until that players is activated and removed from the IR. NOTE: This is different from the IR in the NFL, which players cannot be activated from.
• Keeper League - A fantasy football league (typically a league where each player has a salary) where some players are retained by a team owner each year.
• Optimal - Your team's best possible score, factoring in all active and bench players on that week's roster.
• Owner - The decision-maker for a fantasy football team -- the owners (or managers) are the people who draft the teams, pay the entry fees, and decide who to play each week.
• Performance Scoring - In addition to scoring points when your fantasy football team starters score touchdowns, field goals and extra points, in Performance Scoring formats, owners also receive points for yardage, receptions and various other NFL stat categories.
• Pickup/Waiver - When a team owner adds a player to their fantasy roster.
• Projections - A prognosticators prediction via statistics of any given NFL player for the year head.
• Red Zone - The area on a football field between the end zone and the 20 yard line.
• Rookie - A first-year NFL player.
• Roster - A set of players that makes up your fantasy football team.
• Serpentine Draft - The fantasy football league commissioner draws owners' names from a hat to decide the order of the first draft round. The order is reversed in the second round, and so on.
• Sleeper - A lesser-known or formerly top player (not expected to perform or not known for performing at a high level) who a fantasy football team owner believes will have a standout season.
• Starters - The players a fantasy football team owner chooses to activate each week for a game.
• Stud - An NFL player who has proven to be a top scoring player at his position.
• Target - The number of times a receiver is thrown to during a game.
• Trade - Exchanging players from one fantasy football team to another.
• Vulture or Vulture TD's - Generally a RB in fantasy football, this is a player that may not be the premier RB for a team, but is called upon often near the goal line, because of size or goal line power.